Classes

In Classes, Erik Olin Wright presents a complete reformulation of the Marxist concept of social class Classes bridges the gap between abstract structural accounts of class and the description of class actors in particula historical situations. It restores the concept of exploitation to the centre of class analysis in a way that accommodates both the empirical complexities of the middle class and the existence of state-socialist class structures Classes opens with a succinct exploration of the problems facing

contemporary Marxist class analysis. Having introduced the deas of contradictory class locations Wright goes on to present an audacious newn general framework for thinking about class which employs John Roemer's recent work on the theory of exploitation. He then draws on the implications of this approach and submits it to detailed empirical testing with the help of an important trans-national survey of class structure and consciousness. This rigorous, statistically based testing of the new conceptual apparatus culminates in a fascinating comparison of the Swedish and American class structures, and a discussion of the nature of class consciousness.

Powerfully argued, logically precise and clearly written, Classes is a key work of modern sociology.